Freestyle is a light-medium brownish peach with a matte finish. It had good color payoff, but it was a little powdery. This is a new and exclusive shade to this palette. Bare Escentuals Stealth is more orange and shimmery. Inglot #341 is darker and a little pink.

Mushroom is a gray-brown–it’s a very intense taupe. It had good color payoff, and a really soft, dense texture. This is part of the permanent range. MAC Keep Your Cool is more muted. Chanel Illusoire is less brown.

Blackout is an intense, deep dark black with a matte finish. It has good color payoff and doesn’t have any powderiness. This is part of the permanent range. Milani Pitch Black is slightly softer. Sugarpill Bulletproof is comparable.

Rockstar is a dark, smoky purple with subtle red undertones. It has a very buttery and smooth texture with great color payoff. This is part of the permanent range. MAC Indian Ink is almost like a matte version, though it is a little darker. Lancome Zip Me Up is a bit lighter. Estee Lauder Cyber Lilac is a touch lighter.

Loaded is a blackened green-teal. It goes on very, very dark–you will lose some of the strength of the overall green/teal if you blend it out, but it doesn’t look full-on black. This is part of the permanent range. Bare Escentuals Max Volume is a bit lighter and greener. OCC Poison is greener. theBalm Jealous Jordana is less intense, slightly greener.

Overall, it’s a good palette; the best performing shades were Mushroom, Barlust, Rockstar, and Loaded. The “worst” (which weren’t bad!) performing shades were Evidence and Asphalt, which were both a little dry. Kinky and Freestyle were a marginally powdery but applied well and had good color payoff, despite being lighter in hue, which was impressive. Three of top Urban Decay eyeshadows are in the palette, too (Mushroom, Rockstar, and Loaded) along with the lovely rich black Perversion eyeliner. I tried a few different combinations (none of which I ended up liking, but for testing purposes, still worked), and I averaged around eight hours of wear with minimal fading but no creasing over bare lids. With a primer, the wear was perfectly intact after eight hours of wear.

One thing I disliked about the palette was the composition. This has no impact on the rating at all, because it’s very subjective and doesn’t affect the quality of the product. Like The Black Palette, it has lots of dark, smoky colors–totally appropriate for the palette–but it seems like this is a palette you’d tote around with you, as if it was an all-in-one palette for great smoky looks. There are too many dark shades to build more diverse looks. I would have loved to have seen one or two more shades (perhaps something cool-toned–maybe a silver, silver-blue–hey, Strip would have been a great addition to the palette).

Kinky and Freestyle are the lighter shades in the palette, but it’s missing a genuinely cool-toned one, and perhaps one with some shimmer/satin in it, rather than matte. I tried layering Kinky over a few shades, but it seemed to make more of a mess than lightened the underlying color. Freestyle read a bit too warm against most of the colors when I tried playing with it. If you want a one-and-done palette, maybe this isn’t it. If you want lots of Urban Decay eyeshadows, it could be a great choice.

Each eyeshadow is 0.03 oz. (compared to 0.05 oz.), which means the palette contains $108 in eyeshadow, plus a full-sized eyeliner, which normally retails for $19, and then a small primer potion containing 0.13 fl. oz., which is worth $7. The palette contains $134 worth of products for the $49 price tag. It’s still a great deal–it’s just not as good as previous palettes, such as Naked and Naked 2, which both contained 12 full-sized (as in 0.05 oz. each, so 0.60 oz. worth of eyeshadow–double this palette) eyeshadows, plus two comparable extras (brush and primer).

Honestly, I don’t mind that the eyeshadows aren’t full-sized; it’s hard to get through a full-sized eyeshadow, especially some of the darker shades, of which there are plenty of in this palette, but at this price tag, it’s a little tougher to swallow, given that they’ve done much more value-packed palettes. It’s something to pay attention to in case this a trend of things to come, but the palette on its own is still a good value and well worth the price tag–assuming you want more than 3 shades!

The Glossover

If you want a one-and-done palette, maybe this isn't it. If you want lots of Urban Decay eyeshadows, it could be a great choice. The palette on its own is still a good value (but not as good as palettes have been in the past) and well worth the price tag--assuming you want more than 3 shades!

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I find the color selection… strange? I don’t really get how Freestyle is supposed to be incorporated into a look with the other eyeshadow choices. Like, at all. None of the shades that are exclusive to this palette are enticing me to buy it. It does make me happy with the UD from the permanent range I already have!

@Cat G Freestyle would probably work well with Rockstar. I have a WnW 6pan (Lust) which has a couple of similar colors in it. Then you could add in the black, if you wanted to really smoke it out.
Granted, I haven’t worn the combo together that much, but that’s because I’ve worn a dent in that particular palette’s matte pink.

@Quinctia Yeah, it still seems like an odd choice to me. I’m sure people will find a way to make it work with other colors, I’d be interested in seeing looks from this palette using Freestyle on beauty blogs and youtube

Geez, after Mushroom and Loaded being so hard to get one’s hands on, now they’re available singly and in this palette – will one of them be the new “MCRA” – in EVERY palette and impossible to escape? I love the look of Barlust but I have both Havana and Carbonized (probably why it appeals to me, do ya think?). I have Mushroom, Loaded, Rockstar and Blackout, so I’ll pass on this as I’ve got so many of the shadows already and dupes of the others. And I’ve got the newer Too Faced Smokey Eye palette, which, I have to say, I prefer to this one.

Ooh didn’t realize this one would be $50! I thought I might check it out since I had been really wanting to try Rockstar and Mushroom anyway–but if I’m paying that much, I want to make sure I like ALL the colors and while they’re all pretty, I either already have dupes of them or I wouldn’t wear them enough to warrant spending that much

@Becca @The Beauty Sample Well, if you wanted Rockstar and Mushroom, that would be $36 (though yes, full-sized at that price) – but if there were one or two more shades, it would be cheaper to buy the palette than them individually But it would depend on how you prefer your products, too.

@Becca @The Beauty Sample You can also try to find the Mariposa Palette, which has those two in it. Granted, the formula is the “old” one, but it goes for $39 USD. I just picked one up at Sephora at the end of May, so they may still be around.

i like this one, personally. neither of the naked palettes appeal to me since i don’t wear neutrals at all but instead prefer darker looks and shadows. if i bought it it’d be my first UD anything, which i think would be a good investment.

This actually turns out perfect for me because I’ve had my eye on Loaded, Rockstar, and Mushroom ever since they were released into singles. I already have Blackout and Evidence, but I feel I use the shades enough to justify repeats. thank you for the review! My mom showed plenty of interest when I showed her the press release.

I am underwhelmed, no matter how I look at it, even though I really want a good quality palette with a variety of smoky colours. :/ I wasn’t expecting to be head over heels for MAC LEs and not in love with a UD release. Hopefully the foundation will be more interesting!

…Though I want to see the lookbook they supply with it before I completely write it off.

I own UD’s Alice and Wonderland BOS, and the NYC BOS. While there are plenty of dupes in this palette, I had to buy it simply because I can’t travel with my BOS. They’re too bulky, so this palette will be a perfect travel mate to my Naked palettes! And I love the look of Asphalt and Barlust!

That is one of the many reasons I bought this palette too. BOS are so bulky. I have to depot them into a Z palette. This is a nice size to hold onto while applying makeup or for travel. It is not so much that I have 5 of these existing colors, but it was for convenience. Asphalt and Gunmetal do look alike. When I swatched them, Aphalt had less glitter and more of a purple tone to it.

Like Kari, I like the composition because dark, smoky palettes are a big draw for me, while neutrals are something I generally avoid. Still, I’m passing on this because I have Rockstar and Loaded (one of my favorite eyeshadows EVER!), and was really only interested in Asphalt. It’s always been on my list because of my fascination with greys and was actually 4th after Strip, S&M and Gunmetal. But no more. Not after this review. Sheer *and* dry= pass. I also really appreciate knowing in what ways it’s similar to Gunmetal and my beloved MUFE #1. So, thank you once again, Christine. Temptalia may often lead me to … er… temptation (lol) but you also save me money too!

@Christine (Temptalia) I didn’t realise until I re-read the review that Asphalt was limited only to this palette. Given that fact, I have to wonder if they made a shade almost identical like Gunmetal (which I believe is in a number of the palettes) but without making it seem like this palette was TOO much like the others. As it is, a lot of people here are saying that there are a lot of repeats. So, I wonder if they did some sort of subterfuge refurbishing, if you will: a minor re-tweaking of Gunmetal, re-named as Asphalt and made exclusive to this palette and… voila, people might think the palette had something new and special that made it worth the investment. People who don’t read blogs like yours, that is. It’s reflective of my new distrust of UD’s marketing that I would even think such a thing but… <shrug>.

@Christine (Temptalia) I swatched Asphalt next to Gunmetal and Ace (15th anniversary) and found that Ace and Gunmetal are basically the SAME while asphalt is definitely several shades darker. I like aspalt way more (and i have TWO gunmetals and the Ace dupe of gunmetal) so I am pleased. I was most annoyed with the fact that there was ANOTHER gray that looked so similar to my other UD grays, glad it is not the same.

Some of these shades are really nice like Rockstar and Loaded, but I think I’m getting jaded or something because it’s all looking far too pedestrian for me.. I need more than this which just seems like a pretty collection of the same old same old shades. I’ll pass on this one.

@wwendalynne I think this palette would have been nice with a transforming/overlay kind of shade – not that I love them a lot since they are prone to fall out – but they do transform smoky colors really nicely by adding glitz/glam and lightening, too.

Thank you so much for the review! I was patiently waiting for it! Your swatches have been the best, IMO, of these I’ve seen thus far.

I am still SO undecided on this palette. I like the majority of the shades in here. The only shade in this I already own is the black since it’s in my Naked 2 Palette. I’ve just accepted in life that I’m going to have 100 matte blacks, lol. I knew I wouldn’t care for Asphalt just because it’s so similar to Gunmetal, which I already don’t use much. I like Freestyle, but a bit weird in this palette; I’m sure the intent is to use it as transition shade, but I don’t know how I see it working with the other shades. Now, after these swatches, I’m iffy on Backdoor considering how much grey is in it.

I like the majority of shades, I’ve been meaning to pick up that liner, and I don’t mind getting another primer. Hmmm… I suppose since it’s not limited, I’ve got time to wait!

I’m still on the fence with this one. I have 5 of the colors, plus Gunmetal, in addition to ner-dupes of the other 4. I’ll likely pick this one up at some point, but I won’t be too disappointed if I can’t.

Okay, I think I need to get this one. I like it because backdoor looks like what I currently use for my eyebrows kinky and freestyle look like good brow bone colors and it looks like I could easily layer black out over evidence or even loaded to make for a simple all there in one palette look. I oddly don’t like UD eyeliners. It maybe because I rarely use pencils, but for some reason I can’t get these to do what I want them to do so that is the one really big downer I see, but all in all it looks like something I can throw in my purse when I’m running late and I need to put my make-up on in the car, while my hubby is driving of course.

Actually, speaking of value, I have a question – I’ll be in NJ next month and able to go to an Inglot store. If I were to get a 10-pan palette, do you know if that would be cheaper than this palette? I think it would, because iirc, the shadows are $4, and then the palette would be $5, so it’d be $45 for a 10pan of full size, rather than this. Although there’d be no eyeliner, but I’d be able to custom build something. I think I may do that instead, if I’m right on pricing.

@blueraccoon I went to inglotusa.com, and it’s showing $6/each + $16 for the palette (for 10). I don’t know if stores have different pricing – you might try calling the local store and asking what the price is for a 10-pan palette (filled).

@blueraccoon Even if you end up paying more, at least you’ll have all 10 shadows in the *exact* colors you want, and you can also change them if you decide to go that route. I would suggest that while in the store, you bring a pen & paper to jot down any additional shades that you may want in the future (# with description), so you can order online in the future.

@xamyx @blueraccoon This is true and exactly what I was thinking There actually *is* an Inglot store closer to me – I’m in the Seattle area and there’s one in Alderwood, about 40 min north, but I’m going to wait and go to the actual *store* in NJ, not just the counter in Macy’s by me. I am so looking forward to it.

@xamyx @blueraccoon also, Inglot eye shadows (assuming you get the square ones) are pretty damn big, so for the extra money you get your choice in colors and about 3x worth the product (inglot squares are .09oz compared to .03 in the smoked palette).

i cant believeeeee … just yest i was looking for reviews for this palette on net and you were not there in results .. 😀 and i was hoping you to do a review .. there is lottttt of difference in your reviews and others 😀 and am so glad you did this 😀 def. not a must have for me right now but yeah i do want loaded and mushroom as it is your fav too and was part of your UD palette .. so for some shades i will pick it once Dollar conversion comes down … 😀 thank you “C” for AWERSOMEEEE review 😀 makes purchases lot more better dear

I think you could dupe this palette basically in it’s entirety with Naked 1 and The Black Palette. The only shade that might stick out against them is Mushroom. It might be worth it, though, just for Mushroom and the full-sized Perversion!

First of all, I bought this today without Christine’s review which I like to see first before I buy U.D. palettes. It was really really strange when no review was in sight when the product came it.
#2, I need another palette like I need another bullet into my head. I really dont need this item, but UD somehow has drawn me into all their eyeshadows….though I have worn makeup for years, I never “discover” UD until two years ago with Alice in Wonderland.
#3, MACY’S in SF and in Concord, CA has this item. I will never never buy anything at Sephora again. They are so nice at Macy’s, and at all the dept stores counters where I purchase makeup.
#4, in my opinion, Asphalt and Gunmetal are not alike. They look similar in the pan, but Asphalt has a more purple tone to it than Gunmetal and Gunmetal has the sparkles glitter. Asphalt doesnt.
#5, The black palette was like wearing smothering charcoal on your eyes. I like the packaging, size, and the purpose of smoky eye effect to carry it around for travel etc.
#6. I do agree with Christine that Strip would had been a nice choice for this palette.
#7. I absolutely love the name BACKSIDE….it is such an appropriate name for this shade
Those pale colors dont even show up on my yellow tone skin.

After their stunt with China, I’m not exactly ecstatic about their products (no wish to collect them). This palette doesn’t look like something I need. I think the Too Faced eye palettes are a lot better coordinated and their quality is wonderful. Who thought it was a good idea to name a dark brown eyeshadow the “back door?” Ew, I don’t want that on my eye. #iwouldliketohavebeenatthatmeeting

Hm, this is nice enough but I already have the two Naked palettes and the Black palette so I think I’d find it pointless. Plus the packaging looks really bulky… plus UD are still a little bit on my shit list -_-

I’m the same Dawn; I thought I wanted this too, but after such a fantastic review from Christine I’m happy to stick with the UD 15th Anniversary, Book of Shadows IV and Naked 1 and 2 I’m happy with what I have:)

The only two shades I want but don’t yet have from this palette are Mushroom and Loaded, so I think I’ll just purchase those separately at some point. I have Evidence in the 15th Anniversary Palette. Love the color, but find the texture slightly disappointing compared with what I have come to assume is “UD standard.” Still, it’s pretty, and it’s fall-appropriate. I do agree there could have been just a couple more light-to-medium shades though!

Such a let-down!!! i absolutely loooove UD palettes. I own 11. I wish they could come out with a palette that has only new colors. And different ones. I know this palette has 5 new shades, but honestly, they r dupe-able. I’v been so looking forward to something new from UD. Oh well, that’s more $ in the bank for me. ; )

Wow! This has been a very bumpy ride for UD, 2012 it has been the worst!!!New products have been kind of unsatisfying, increase of prices, UD goes to China( in search of more profit),and then the backlash, now they’s just reducing the eyeshadow amount on the palettes (i do kind)…ummh ok

First UD palette in a while that I’m really coveting. I appreciate that there aren’t a ton of shades I already own, and I like the top row of neutrals balanced out by the jewel tones. So many smokey palettes fall back on the old black-grey-brown standards. The smaller volume doesn’t really bother me either, because it’s still a fantastic deal, especially since the add-on (the pencil liner) is something I will actually use.

To me, these swatches look amazing. From what I can tell, they look pretty unique. Then again, I don’t have a lot of eyeshadows. I like that the palette has a lot of dark shadows, that’s really what I’m missing in my personal collection. I feel as if I have enough light colored shadows. Also for me, I can get any light colored shadows that I need from the drugstore. It’s the darker drugstore colors that really don’t seem to work. So I see this as a true bargain.

As for giving less shadow… Well, I’d rather slightly smaller shadows than a price increase. I mean, really how many people have used all of a shadow in a palette? I’ve had my Naked 1 palette for a year. I use it a lot. Yet, the only one that looks like it’s even close to hitting pan is Half-Baked (and there’s still a ton left).

@Liz9969 Re: price – it’s still a good deal, but it’s 50% of that good deal that Naked 1 and 2 are, which are both still available – not like they were awhile ago and costs have increased or something like that. I agree that it’s better than a price increase, but it’s more like why the change? Before they did the 6-pan palettes, which were around $36 or so, and I believe those were 0.03 oz. as well.

It’s like when a brand constantly discounts itself. Even UD suffers from this because they do release so many palettes that less people feel compelled to buy their singles since it’s always cheaper to buy a big ol’ palette of shades, even if you don’t love them all, than singles. Like Bath & Body Works nearly always has a 20% off coupon floating around, so I never bother paying full price. That 20% off price becomes the new “standard” price.

It goes both ways – it’s just one of those red flags. Something to watch for, could be a sign of things to come, change in policies, etc. It became pretty obvious that MAC was very interested in charging more but giving you far more than you *really* need (notice that the majority of new eyeshadow formulas they’ve launched come in the larger pots and are usually 0.10 oz. or so, double the regular eyeshadows) – but you pay for that increase in product by $5 per color. 0.05 oz. is plenty of eyeshadow, so 0.10 oz. is a steal for only $5 more, yet if you never use it up, you haven’t saved at all! Investment cost vs. cost per use can be totally different, and different people look at one over the other.

I received this in the mail today, and played around with it for a while. I wanted the palette primarily for mushroom, rockstar, and loaded. I was also excited to try Barlust and Backdoor as I am not fond of many of the browns in the Naked 1 &2 palettes (Snakebite, Smog, Darkhorse) and I want more medium browns from UD like Deeper in the 15th anniversary palette and Lost in the BOS4! I really like Barlust, it’s a beautiful reddish brown and is going to be my new favorite medium brown shadow along with Deeper : ) Backdoor is AMAZING to me.. I didn’t own a dark matte brown before and this one looks perfect with my coloring! I also think the name is damn hilarious.I did the first look in the Look Book, “Iconic,” today, and let me tell you, Mushroom is my new HG eyeshadow. I just LOVE the shade and the texture! Amazing! Rockstar and Loaded are just as pigmented and beautiful as I expected as well, although I can’t really see using them together like it says to do in the Look Book, lol.I’m mixed, african american and caucasian so I knew that Kinky and Freestyle were not going to be good on me (all medium/dark skinned ladies know that exasperation when you look at a palette and it’s 1/5 pastel/washed out shades that will look terrible on you) and I was not surprised to find that Kinky does not really show on my skin (Foxy in Naked 2 is another completely useless shadow for me). Freestyle, however, is a GREAT matte for blending out shadows and I’m delighted to have a definitive use for another one of these shadows!I posted on another comment about Asphalt, I swatched it next to Gunmetal and Ace from the 15th anniversary palette and found that Gunmetal and Ace look pretty much exactly alike, while Asphalt is quite a bit darker and has less “shimmer” or reflectiveness/glitter. I actually like it way it isn’t as light or blue-ish as the other two colors, which I don’t really care for. I’m excited to use it for smoky looks that always looked weird on me when I used Gunmetal!I already had Blackout & Evidence, Evidence I could have done without a dupe of but I can never have too much black matte eyeshadow, I use it to LIGHTLY fill in my brows, which are so close to black that any shade of brown looks realllll weird. Backdoor is pretty good for this too, but I don’t want to waste it in my brows!Overall, I really, really like this palette. The packaging is adorable and sturdy, I like the print inside, and I LOVE all of the shadows. I only had a mini 24/7 liner in “zero” before this and I like perversion so much better! I don’t know if I like it enough to buy it for $19 when I run out but I will at least buy all kits/values that include it! I would not have purchased this palette if I had the BOS 3 with rockstar & loaded in it, but as I only had two of the shadows this was a great buy for me : )

Skipping this one. I already have Naked1, Book of Shadows 4, Rollergirl, and 15th anniversary palette and I feel that if I don’t have a shade in this palette, I have something pretty close from Urban Decay. The two lightest shades also look like they’d be chalky on me. I prefer shimmers over mattes in general, so I can’t really imagine what looks I’d do with this palette than I couldn’t do with the palettes I have. To be fair, it’s hard to imagine another palette that I’d need, as I really have a lot of eyeshadow for a normal person. In addition to Urban Decay, I have a bunch of singles, a big smashbox palette, a Bobbi Brown palette, and two too faced palettes.

I am really excited by this palette. In general, smokey eye palettes are boring (black, white, silver, grey, maybe a purple) – I love that this one has a great selection of colors, including warm-toned colors, which too-often get overlooked. I also love that this palette includes a good range of matte colors for blending, and that the others are for the most part shimmer or metallic. I guess Smoked does seem similar to the black palette…except that Black was a GLITTERBOMB DISASTER–totally unwearable, from my perspective. (Too Faced also seems to suffer from this glitter disease – perhaps it’s contagious). Smoked, on the other hand, looks really classy. But it’s a real disappointed about the value; I don’t mind a palette with less product, but then it should be cheaper!

I just got the palette and I really like it. This is only my second Urban Decay palette (I also have Naked 1), so there are no repeats for me. The true test of a product is to see how much I end up reaching for this in the future. I think I will because I love to use darker shadows in the place of eyeliner

I’ve been looking at all the urban decay palettes for weeks but I can’t decide on which one to buy. I don’t own many eyeshadows in general so I would like a good basic palette with wearable colors and neutrals. Any recommendations?

book of shadows 4, or the ammo palette (but it has a lot of sparkles). they are having a sale on palettes on their website right now, so you could theoretically get 2 or more to suit your tastes, they are less than $15 each.

Just getting into the UD shadows, I only have the Rollergirl Palette. I honestly love this palette, total win for me! I was debating buying this or making my own customized palette and I’m so happy I decided to get Smoked. It has most of the shades I was looking at for the custom palette anyway. Definitely worth the money.

i know that ud repeats shadows, but i think that since they reformulated their eyeshadows, it’s not really like getting repeats if you have rockstar and loaded from bos 3. it’s weird how much i loved their eyeshadows then and now they fall so far in comparison to the new ones. i had just bought mushroom and loaded and i was certain to skip on this palette, but then i returned those (unused) for the smoked palette. i love it. i can do a simple and clean, matte, matte smokey, super dark smokey, colorful smokey, color pop, etc etc.

I need some feedback. I have a ton of neutral eye palettes and am considering this or maybe dangerous or feminine from holiday 2012 to provide some color/variety however need office appropriate looks. I have 2 yr old so no nightime glam for me. Are theses colors too much for a day at work?nc20 and blues with brown hair. Thanks!

I have a big question: are these eyeshadows in the palette with the REFORMULATED texture? I think it’s not, cause for example mushroom in the regormulated version is really vibrant while this mushroom right here seems simply a light grey! please christine leave me the doubt!! thank you!

thank you, but then why the photos of the same shadow are different? I compared the photos you did of the reformulated mushroom and this mushroom in the smoked palette and they’re really different! why?

I found all are very interesting colors. They have dark blue, green and purple, with matte too and taupe. Almost complete! This is going to be my favorite!!. I will combine with Urban Decay shadow deluxe. Perfect! 😀